ROOT SYSTEMS | FIELD GUIDES
Ideas bloom when we make communication accessible.
The Pollinator Group's Root Systems
Field Guides are free, downloadable
resources for neurodivergent professionals
and the people designing the systems they work in.
Resilient Communication Series
A Watchlist for Boards, Committees, and Teams Operating Inside Larger Fields of Play
This guide covers what governing boards, advisory committees, and working teams actually need to know about operating inside institutions that have their own rules, cultures, and power structures — and what goes wrong when no one names that clearly.
Most governance failures aren't failures of intention. They're failures of design. This guide gives board members, committee members, and the staff who support them a shared framework for spotting the problems before they become crises.
The Governing Body Field Guide is a free governance resource from The Pollinator Group for boards, committees, and teams operating inside or alongside larger institutions. 
A Field Guide for Neurodivergent Professionals and the People Designing the Systems They Work In
Most workplaces were built around assumptions that work for some brains and not others. The friction isn't a personal failing — it's a design problem.
This field guide names that clearly. Then it gives you language to fix it.
What's inside:
Practical, plain-language tools for two audiences — neurodivergent professionals navigating systems that weren't built for them, and system designers building workflows, policies, and organizational cultures that actually work.
Seven sections. 20+ real scenarios. Covers:
Workplace communication protocols and channel agreements
Adaptive scheduling and deadline design
Documentation systems that reduce cognitive load
Inclusive meeting design — in-person and virtual
Trauma-informed feedback practices
Task visibility and working memory supports
System check-ins and iterative improvement
Plus a full glossary, resources and finding support, and a team working agreement template you can adapt and use immediately.
Who this is for:
Neurodivergent professionals — language to name what you need, advocate for accommodations, and explain your working style without deficit framing or apology.
System designers — managers, team leads, HR professionals, and educators building workflows, policies, and processes that work for more cognitive styles.
You don't need a diagnosis to use this guide. If you've noticed friction between how you work and how systems expect you to work, this is for you.
Built from lived experience. Grounded in universal design.
This guide draws on the work of Ludmila N. Praslova, PhD (The Canary Code), Microsoft's Xbox Accessibility Guidelines, and the disability justice principle that designing for the people most excluded by a system improves that system for everyone.
Each guide is built from lived experience and designed to make collaboration more fruitful.
The Root Systems Accessible Communication Field Guide is a free resource from The Pollinator Group covering neurodivergent-inclusive workplace communication, universal design for meetings and feedback systems, sensory needs advocacy, and practical language for neurodivergent professionals and the system designers building the organizations they work in.
More from the Resilient Communications Series on Buzz or Bloom.
Accessible Communication Field Guide
This guide covers workplace accessibility language, neurodiversity-informed communication systems, and inclusive meeting and feedback design — practical tools for teams that are serious about their values.
Most workplaces were built around assumptions that work for some brains and not others. The friction isn't a personal failing — it's a design problem. This guide names that clearly, and gives you language to fix it.
Relational Conduct
Field Guide
This Respectful, Inclusive, Relational Conduct Field Guide is a Proclamation Template — a customizable, adoptable standard for how governing boards, committees, and teams commit to communicating with one another.
Most governing bodies have policies about conduct. Few have proclamations about it. A policy says what you're not allowed to do. A proclamation says who you are — and what you're committed to, on the record, together. This template is for governing bodies that want to be on record.
Governing Bodies
Field Guide
This guide covers what governing boards, advisory committees, and working teams actually need to know about operating inside institutions that have their own rules, cultures, and power structures — and what goes wrong when no one names that clearly.
Most governance failures aren't failures of intention. They're failures of design. This guide gives board members, committee members, and the staff who support them a shared framework for spotting the problems before they become crises.